2026-08-09 17:02:12
Our subscriber base has grown so much since we first started nine years ago that most of you have missed all our earliest recommendations. The best of these are still valid and useful, so we’re trying out something new — Retro Recomendo. Once every 6 weeks, we’ll send out a throwback issue of evergreen recommendations focused on one theme from the past 10 years.
For years I’ve tried to keep a home budget, but it never seems to work. I end up spending more than I budgeted in some categories, less in others, and I don’t keep good track of what I’ve spent. When our Cool Tools podcast guest Lillian Karabaic recommended something called You Need a Budget (YNAB), I decided to give it a try. I’m glad I did. YNAB’s websites and mobile apps are excellent, as are the podcasts, videos, blog posts, and mailing lists they produce. It took me a while to wrap my head around the YNAB method, but now that I get it, I’m a true believer. For the first time in my adult life, I feel in control of my finances. — MF
I’ve been making micro-loans to entrepreneurs in the developing world via Kiva for 10 years. I loan small amounts (less than $100) to, say, women in Africa hoping to buy a sewing machine to start their own sewing business, or herders in Bolivia needing some equipment to make cheese, and soon enough they will repay the loan so that I can re-loan the money again to someone else. I’ve gone through 4 cycles of loans for my first money, and there is less than 0.1% delinquency — a rate any bank would die for. 100% of my money goes to helping the individuals I select; Kiva’s operating costs are funded separately. The money keeps going around. It’s one of the best bargains in the world. — KK
Salary Transparent Street shares videos of people on the street being asked, “What do you do?” and “How much do you make?” It’s humbling and (mind-boggling!) to imagine how I would survive in the Bay Area on certain salaries across the U.S. The channel’s goal is to promote pay transparency across the United States, close the gender pay gap, and increase diversity and equal opportunities. You can follow it on Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok. — CD
Notarizing documents traditionally requires visiting a notary, but I’ve been utilizing online notary services for the past few years to avoid this hassle. All that’s needed is a laptop with a webcam. There are numerous online notaries available; my recent choice was Notarize.com, which charges $25 to notarize a single document. — MF
Few things in life are as satisfying as getting handwritten thank-you notes from school kids for helping them learn. DonorsChoose is a non-profit that features thousands of public school teachers seeking basic school supplies, or extra gear for special projects (rocket kits for science!). The teachers post their pitch. You choose a project. When it gets fully funded, they post verification pictures of the kids using the resource which your funds provided, and later they’ll send you a fistful of amazingly detailed (and endearing) letters from the students themselves. You’ll want to do this. — KK
I use PayPal to send money to strangers (like on eBay or Etsy); I use Venmo to pay friends; but if I need to send a lot of money (more than several thousand $$$), I use Zelle. Unlike Venmo, which holds a reserve in your account that you replenish, Zelle is basically a bank-to-bank wire transfer – for free. But the interface is person-to-person. Still can’t do it internationally, but it is very handy for larger peer-to-peer payments in the U.S. Easy to set up. — KK
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Recomendo is an authentic, hand-crafted, human-written weekly newsletter that is free, but not cheap. Consider supporting our work with a paid option, now at the low price of $45 per year. Paid subs enable us to keep making it free for others. Recomendo is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper and Book Freak.
2026-08-02 17:02:42
Reading Maps plots the routes characters travel in novels and films — you can trace the Pequod’s ocean path as it chases Moby Dick, or Victor Frankenstein’s pursuit of his monster from Geneva to the Arctic. Hundreds of journeys are mapped so far, sortable by setting (Sea, Overland, River, Rail, Survival, and more), and each one breaks the story into stops you can follow one at a time: where a ship or train left from, and what happened there. Since the stops follow the plot, the site will happily spoil the ending if you haven’t finished the book. — MF
I use the Countdown Days Since & Until app to track how long it’s been since health and beauty appointments so I know when it’s time to reschedule — I’m really bad at remembering to get my hair cut. I also use it to count down to vacations and anniversaries, occasionally opening the app to see how many weeks or days or even hours are left, and it’s nice to get a little surge of anticipation as the time between things shortens. After using the free version for years I finally paid $4.99 to unlock extras like adding photo backgrounds to certain events. Unfortunately, this particular app seems to be iOS‑only, but any simple “important dates” tracker would be useful. — CD
I find it entertaining to see what is listed in Wikipedia nearby to wherever I am. On any device that knows where it is (like a phone), load this NearbyWiki page, and it will show on a map all the nearby items that have a Wikipedia entry. Most are places, but occasionally it gives you something unexpected. — KK
Some of you have asked what paper and ink I’ve been using with the fountain pen I wrote about last week. Both were recommended by the woman working at my local art supply store: a Leuchtturm 1917 120gsm notebook and Noodler’s Nightshade ink. The heavy paper handles wet ink — no bleed-through, no ghosting, and the nib glides. The ink is a purple-blue that shades nicely on the page. One warning she gave me: Noodler’s bottles come filled almost to the brim, so open it over the sink. I took her advice and I’m glad I did — it was full to the top. — MF
All my friends who years ago stopped writing code themselves are now using Anthropic’s Claude to write code for them. This 20 minute tutorial put out by Anthropic is basically the course they use to train their own coders on how to use Claude (to make future versions of Claude). It’s the best tricks they know on how to tell an AI to code for you (aimed at those who already know how to code). — KK
We’ve recommended the Seek app before, but lately I’ve been spending more time on the Observations page of the iNaturalist website, which shows a live stream of sightings from the full iNaturalist community rather than just my own Seek scans. You can filter the stream by species, location, and date, and it feels like a photo feed curated by the living world instead of an algorithm. It’s more interesting to scroll than my Instagram, but this view doesn’t exist in any of the apps, so for now I just keep the page bookmarked. — CD
It is hard to believe that Recomendo has been running for 10 years this week! Every Sunday morning we send 6 brief recommendations. Help us celebrate our 10th Anniversary by sharing our free newsletter with your friends. We have a few distinctive gifts as rewards for those who refer four or more new subscribers. See here: https://www.recomendo.com/leaderboard
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Evite vs Paperless Post: Which RSVP platform is best for parties and meetups and other events? I reviewed both of them in detail and talked about a free option (Mixily) that you can also try. Read the full article here.
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Recomendo is an authentic, hand-crafted, human-written weekly newsletter that is free, but not cheap. Please consider supporting our work with a paid option, now at the low price of $45 per year. Paid subs enable us to keep making it free for others.
Recomendo is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Recomendo Deals, Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper, Cool Tools Weekly Newsletter, and Book Freak.
2026-07-26 17:02:44
For some people “Giving Money Away Can Be Harder Than Making It” so Roy Bahat, someone whose lifelong habit has been to give money away, has written up some tips in this essay. He follows part one with a second set of more practical suggestions aimed at the thousands of young people about to become millionaires in the AI IPO boom: How to Actually Give Away Your AI Money. Our family has had a habit of philanthropy even when we had very little. I agree with Bahat that giving away well is challenging, and also incredibly rewarding. — KK
Pixel Thoughts started as a 60-second meditation site where you type whatever you’re stressed about into a star and watch it drift off into space, and now the same idea is available as a phone app on iOS and Android. My favorite new feature is the custom meditation option, where you pick the length and music, and it reads your specific worry and builds a short reframe around that exact thought instead of a generic one. It’s free, and you can just download it and try it out, no account needed. — CD
I keep an Infinity packable travel bag in my suitcase for trips where I know I’ll be bringing more home than I left with. It weighs just 260g and folds down to almost nothing, so I pack it empty and only unfold it when I need the extra space. It slips over a suitcase handle for rolling through the airport, has interior pockets for small stuff, and stands up on its own so it’s easy to load. — MF
Jurassic Park Computers in Excruciating Detail is pure movie-nerd joy and behind-the-scenes magic for JP fans. The author goes through every single computer in the film, and I learned that today’s equivalent of about $4,000,000 in hardware and software was loaned for the production, and that everything was functional because, even then, audiences were too sophisticated about computers to fake it. This movie came out when I was 10 years old. I played the video game, I watched the movies on loop, and at one point I even had a Jurassic Park–themed birthday party (at age 27), so this kind of obsessive breakdown literally induces glee. R.I.P. Sam Neill. — CD
If you have listened to podcasts in the past decade, or watch tutorials on YouTube, it would be hard to miss Hank Green, who is a prolific explainer. He is omnipresent in the explainosphere. I enjoy dipping into his latest YouTube solo channel, where, in his signature rapid-fire style he explains whatever interests him. His lessons are very clear, sensible, and often with a little bit of a skewed view. He’s probably one of the best explainers of complex things. — KK
I bought this inexpensive fountain pen from Asvine after reading Neal Stephenson’s essay on writing by hand, which makes the case that longhand recruits more of your brain — and that a fountain pen is far less tiring than a pencil or ballpoint because the nib skates on the ink instead of requiring pressure. He recommends buying cheap pens until you know what you like. This one writes beautifully, has a metal body, a knurled barrel, and satisfying weight. It comes with a converter for bottled ink. — MF
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Recomendo is an authentic, hand-crafted, human-written weekly newsletter that is free, but not cheap. Please consider supporting our work with a paid option, now at the low price of $45 per year. Paid subs enable us to keep making it free for others.
Recomendo is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Recomendo Deals, Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper, Cool Tools Weekly Newsletter, and Book Freak.
2026-07-19 17:01:47
Like the podcast 99% Invisible, the newsletter/blog Inconspicuous Consumption pays obsessive attention to minor details that most people don’t even see. For instance: long essays on whether the final button holes on shirts should be vertical or horizontal, or Where Should the Apostrophe Go on a Vertically Lettered Sign?. More on ashtray designs, the colors of butter, security envelope patterns. The less significant the details are, the more attention they get. Entire worlds can be glimpsed at the end of an office stapler. The tagline for the site is Big Enthusiasm for Small Details. Few who descend down these rabbit holes return the same. — KK
I love the core question this piece “Navigating by aliveness” offers when wondering if you’re on the right track: “Does this feel like it’s taking me in the direction of greater aliveness?” Aliveness here means fully inhabiting an experience and shifting your attention away from what you’re feeling and toward the depth and clarity with which you’re feeling it, whether it’s painful, dull, or joyful. The author goes on to explore why this matters in an AI‑shaped future, and suggests we relate to technology a bit like the Amish do: only adopting tools if they clearly serve our deepest values, rather than assuming they’re automatically good. For me, this definition alone feels like a daily way to check my own presence, and how fully I’m actually here in my life, moment to moment. — CD
I bought this tiny Mbzoey Electric Foil Shaver to take on trips, but it’s become my everyday razor. It’s rechargeable via USB-C and lasts at least a few weeks of daily shaving on a single charge, with an LED display that shows how much charge is left. No more shaving cream — I just run it over my face dry. I can do an early-evening touch-up before going out in under a minute. — MF
I love this mashup of electronic music plus French medieval instrumentation, sometimes called Bardcore. A good example of bardcore is the French group Courseval doing Daft Punk’s cover song Veridis Quo. As one commenter said “Proof that we could have had Daft Peasant any time in the last 500 years.” — KK
Text as Music is a simple browser tool where you paste your writing and it colors every sentence by length, so you can literally see the rhythm on the page. Micro sentences turn one color, short another, and medium and long each have their own. It’s inspired by Gary Provost’s line, “Don’t just write words. Write music.” — CD
My friend Seth Godin — author of Purple Cow, Linchpin, Tribes, The Dip, and This Is Marketing — writes a daily email full of excellent short ideas about life and business. But it turns out he has even shorter ideas that don’t make it into the daily email, and he’s collected them on a page called Seth’s Riffs. Each one is a sentence or two. You can vote for your favorites, which sorts the best to the top. A few of mine:
The question shouldn’t be, “does it scale?” Instead, it might be, “is it worth it?”
Waiting for perfect is never as smart as making progress.
Defending mediocrity is exhausting.
Using an existing idea to solve a new problem isn’t theft. Ideas shared are the most powerful kind.
— MF
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Recomendo is an authentic, hand-crafted, human-written weekly newsletter that is free, but not cheap. Please consider supporting our work with a paid option, now at the low price of $45 per year. Paid subs enable us to keep making it free for others.
Recomendo is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Recomendo Deals, Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper, Cool Tools Weekly Newsletter, and Book Freak.
2026-07-12 17:00:36
Pixar has been in a slump, but their newest release is fun and has some of the old magic back. Hoppers (Disney+ or BluRay) carries a convoluted plot involving animals and animal robots, downloading avatars, and key species in wildlife ecology. And for the memes, lots of beavers. It’s a fully realized world, lighthearted and whimsical, with some interesting ideas, and not too predictable. — KK
This article introduced me to cognitive shuffling, a very simple word‑based visual exercise that helps the author fall asleep faster. You pick a random, emotionally neutral word like “duck,” picture it, then move to another unrelated word, and keep gently shuffling through these images until you drift off. I’ve been trying this for about a week now, and one of two things keeps happening: I either slip into a liminal hypnagogic state where the imagery shifts and takes over until I fall asleep, or my mind gets quickly bored by not getting to make associations with the non‑linear images and just shuts down into sleep. It might not be my favorite entry into sleep, but it did work and could be helpful to those struggling with insomnia. — CD
Sometimes I watch a show on my phone while flying. I’ve propped it against a wadded-up napkin on the tray table, watching it slide off every time the seat in front reclines. This small metal clamp from Ugreen grips the tray table (or a seatback lip, luggage handle, or kitchen cabinet — the jaw opens 8–25mm), and your phone snaps onto the magnetic head, holding it through turbulence. It folds flat, rotates for portrait or landscape, and works with any MagSafe case. It also works on a treadmill, nightstand, or car headrest. — MF
You can buy your kid a dumbphone, or purchase an app (with paid subscription!) to make a spare smartphone dumber, but Jeremy White at Wired figured out that you can also use the buried options in an iPhone to craft a perfect device for a kid. These options are somewhat hidden under the Accessibility menu, and seem to be designed for those with cognitive disabilities, but also work to constrain the access your child has. Full instructions in this Wired article, This Buried Apple Feature Turns an iPhone Into the Perfect Kids’ Dumb Phone. — KK
This week’s What’s in my NOW? is my own issue. As editor, I usually feature other people’s lists—and we’re always accepting submissions, so if you’d like to share yours, check out this Call for Submissions. But this time I shared six things shaping my life right now: three physical, two digital, and one invisible. They’re more intimate than what I’d normally recommend here—closer to my inner life and energy healing practice—like a full-body red light therapy mat that puts me into a euphoric state in about 10 minutes, AudioPen for transcribing my dreams, and the invisible one: Ubuntu, “I am because we are,” a reminder that my growth isn’t a solo path but happens in the uncomfortable, relational space between me and others. Read the full issue here. — CD
I run a newsletter called Book Freak, and I’ve started a paid feature I’m calling the Deep Cuts reading club. Each month I dig up a great book that time forgot — usually something out of print and not on Project Gutenberg — and produce a clean ebook edition of it in EPUB and PDF, with a cover and a short foreword explaining why it’s worth your time. Subscribers get a growing library plus a discussion thread for the monthly pick. The first one is H.G. Wells’s strange 1928 satire, Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island. — MF
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Recomendo is an authentic, hand-crafted, human-written weekly newsletter that is free, but not cheap. Please consider supporting our work with a paid option, now at the low price of $45 per year. Paid subs enable us to keep making it free for others.
Recomendo is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Recomendo Deals, Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper, Cool Tools Weekly Newsletter, and Book Freak.
2026-07-05 20:46:06
One of my favorite newsletters, Down the Rabbit Hole, is a weekly, curated collection of psychoactive internet rabbit holes exploring meaning, beauty, and aliveness. The creator recently shared a virtual “window” you can click open that sends you to one of the most-clicked links from the past five years. It feels like StumbleUpon with soul— tiny portal into wonder. — CD
I’ve been burned by buying a “buy-it-for-life” brand only to discover the company and the logo were sold years ago. Worse on Purpose rates 215 brands — tools, bags, apparel, eyewear, and footwear — as either Approved, Watchlist, Former Great, or Avoid. A sample: Ray-Ban is designated “Avoid” (“Priced as luxury, produced to commodity standards”). Another example: Peak Design is designated “Approved”, (because it is still founder-owned). — MF
Imagine having access to all the ancient maps of the world, and being able to explore them with AI, including searching on the words etched in the maps, or concepts about the maps – for instance “give me all the maps showing the routes of Roman aqueducts.” All this and more are available online for free, at the David Rumsey Map Collection. For 25 years Rumsey has been scanning over 140,000 maps of all kinds from his insane collection from around the world. He then innovates ways to share them. When you find a map you particularly like, you can tap a button and have it printed out on a large scale and mailed to you for a reasonable fee. This is an international treasure. — KK
What was the most streamed show in 2025? Bluey, a kids animated show from Australia. Bluey has about 150 very short episodes using an animated dog family to model emotional intelligence and give toddlers strategies for big feelings. Like Sesame Street, adults can tolerate watching it. I think early Sesame Street is better, teaching more and broader, but Bluey is a good second choice. (Technically streamed on Disney+, but available on YouTube as well.) Because episodes are shorter (about 10 minutes), small kids love rewatching them. — KK
I just got back from an overseas trip, and this inflatable travel seat cushion made a 10+ hour flight—and those board-hard seats—so much more bearable. I was hesitant to become someone who carries a personal butt pillow through the airport, but I’m glad I got over it and brought it along. It deflates and rolls up smaller than a neck pillow. — CD
I’ve ruined my share of meat by cutting in to check doneness. The MeatStick V Duo uses two wireless probes that you can put into two different cuts, and the app predicts when each will hit its target temperature. A small LCD base shows the temps so I don’t have to grab my phone with greasy hands. The probes can handle open flame up to 1200°F and are dishwasher safe. — MF
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Recomendo is an authentic, hand-crafted, human-written weekly newsletter that is free, but not cheap. Please consider supporting our work with a paid option, now at the low price of $45 per year. Paid subs enable us to keep making it free for others.
Recomendo is published by Cool Tools Lab, a small company of three people. We also run the Cool Tools website, a YouTube channel and podcast, and other newsletters, including Recomendo Deals, Gar’s Tips & Tools, Nomadico, What’s in my NOW?, Tools for Possibilities, Books That Belong On Paper, Cool Tools Weekly Newsletter, and Book Freak.